A Twist In Time
by nixhunter
Summary: It's been a year since Wilbur Robinson ever used the Time Machine. When he accidentally crashes the Time Machine and gets stuck in the past, a girl takes him into her house and takes care of him. He worries this crash could alter time and space. But the girl, Vinnie, is worried about something totally different, something that has to do with a strange feeling she has...
1. Chapter 1: The Falling Star

Vinnie's curiosity had been peaked, extremely. She was trying to get to sleep, while ignoring her mild insomnia, when a flash of light sparked her curiosity. This was extraordinary, because Vinnie had not heard of any meteoroid showers from any source she could get to, or any other thing that would involve flashes of light. The Husky Vinnie and her dad owned, Socks-who'd been named for his white marks on his legs that looked like socks, hence the name- had noticed the light as well. Socks lifted his head off the living room rug, his pointy ears turning. He turned his head and cocked it at Vinnie. "I'm guessing you saw that too, Socks boy." Vinnie said, getting up off of the couch (She had been sleeping there due to her father renovating and repainting her room upstairs). Socks got up on his snowy white legs and shook himself. He knew Vinnie too well to know that Vinnie was going to see whatever landed in the forest, even if it was a deadly man-eating species of alien or something of that nature. Vinnie found it convenient that she was still wearing her green camo-pattern jeans and her black fitted T-Shirt that had a graffiti "Brave" on the front. She slipped on her black converses, grabbed her thin white hoodie and opened the back door. She walked into the forest with little hesitation, since she'd been there many times and had a tree house further in, even though she knew from previous experiences that there were bears and wolves back there. 'But I'm brave,' Vinnie thought as she ventured into the forest. 'I'm not scared of any bears, or wolves.' Vinnie sprinted across dead leaves, eager to see what had landed in the forest. She hopped over a few logs and skipped off the rocks that jutted out of the stream. All went well until Vinnie came across a strange smell: Smoke. "But where's the fire?" Vinnie asked herself, cocking her head in both curiosity and confusion. She took cautious steps towards the source until she had reached the clearing in the middle of the forest. She followed the smell until she found it was getting stronger and that she could see a thin wisp of smoke rising from something mechanical. When Vinnie finally found the source, she stopped dead in her tracks. The machine the smoke was coming from looked very strange, like an alien spaceship or something the Jetsons used to ride around in. "What...is that?" Vinnie asked herself once more (Vinnie had a frequent habit of talking to herself, which was one of the many reasons why she had a very small friend circle). She slowly progressed to the strange machine, being once again cautious in case this actually was an alien ship or something like that. It was medium sized and red, and looked broken, but not too badly damaged, like whoever crashed it at least attempted a soft landing. Vinnie kind of knew how the strange thing-a-ma-jigger must've crashed. Vinnie and her father lived in the remote countryside of Alabama, but there was a large radio tower near the woods in a big field. Vinnie concluded that the tower must've interfered with the machine's controls, and it caused the machine to malfunction. Socks was sniffing the machine, and then he sniffed the ground. "What's up, Socks? Do you smell something?" Vinnie followed Socks until the dog looked in a bush and stuck his head in. The dog was in there for a minute before Vinnie decided to look in the bush as well. When Vinnie looked in the thorny bush, however, she was shocked to find a young boy there. The boy had a black hair that was mildly messy (Vinnie suspected that maybe he was operating the machine and was thrown from it) and his skin was slightly pale. He looked to be about her age (fourteen) and seemed to be about as tall as her. Vinnie looked to the machine and saw that the top of the strange vehicle was opened. "Oh, no. He must've been thrown from that strange machine..." She muttered. Vinnie tried to feel for a pulse on his wrist, and she did find it. Just to make sure he was alive though, she put her head on his chest. She heard his heart beating at a normal pace. Vinnie was relieved to see that he was okay, but what was going to happen to him out here? He could get eaten by bears, or he could die from starving or dehydration, or worse. Vinnie didn't want this boy to die, she wanted him to live. Even if he wasn' t human, even if he was a man-eating alien, she wanted him to live. Vinnie's heart was having a war with her head, instinct fought against intuition, and reason against gut. Vinnie's conscience was fighting with her.

"**I should take him back home and care for him until he's okay"**

_"But you'll get into big trouble with your dad..."_

**"He'll die on his own out here!"**

_"But he could be an alien, he could just be obtaining a disguise to fool you. Didn't you see the machine?"_

**"Well, yes, but that "means nothing! He's a living being like me, and my dad, and Socks. He deserves to live as much as the rest of us!"**

_"He could be a deadly escaped convict."_

**"No! Stop it! Whatever he is I HAVE to help him! He's hurt and I'm not just going to leave him out here to die! I'm going to help him and that is my FINAL decision!"**

Wilbur's head was spinning a bit. All he really could remember was crashing the time machine, being thrown from it and being knocked out. He had opened the top accidentally and next thing he knew he was thrown into a bush near a tree and hit his head. He did remember being in a bush with thorns and scratchy branches. But Wilbur didn't feel any thorns or scratchy branches now, in fact, he felt like he was home in his bed. Was crashing the time machine all simply a nightmare? Was he just dreaming? No, it felt too real. He was sure he got into the time machine, but at the moment, Wilbur couldn't remember why. Wherever he was, he concluded that maybe he was in a house. Wilbur found his guess to be correct when he opened his eyes. It looked like a basement, but this basement looked like someone lived in it. There was also a bed above him, so he guessed that there were either siblings in this basement or this person just had a bunk bed in their basement. Wilbur sat up only to hear a voice saying things like "I'm going to die..." and "My dad is going to kill me and dance on my grave..." He looked around the room, finding things like strings of lights shaped like blue phone booths, a few boxes and book shelves full of huge novels, but Wilbur also saw a girl. She looked about his age, with long brown hair that went to her mid back, and tanned skin, like she got a lot of sun. When she looked at him, Wilbur saw dark honey-colored eyes that simply looked frightened and scared. The girl stopped pacing and froze. For a brief moment, all they did was stare and breathe. Wilbur saw the girl put her hands over her face and muttered something he couldn't hear very well. Then the silence was broken when she said "I can explain everything please don't panic."


	2. Chapter 2: The Broken Time Machine

Vinnie spent what seemed like an hour or two explaining to the boy how he got into her room (the basement was a temporary arrangement since, again, Vinnie's dad was renovating and repainting her original room) and why he was so scratched up. The boy didn't say a word though, he just sat on the end of the bottom bunk with his hands over his face and absolutely bewildered. "And then I didn't want you to get hurt out there, so I...brought you and your machine here." She finished, shuffling her foot a little on the floor. "The name's Vinnie...by the way..." Vinnie added, looking away. "Wilbur..." The boy said, hands still over his face. Vinnie didn't know what to do, mainly because one, he was a boy (and Vinnie was awfully shy around boys) and two, he was a complete stranger. "Where's the machine?" The boy asked, standing up. "Its...in the garage..." Vinnie said. She lead Wilbur up the stairs and out the door, Socks looking up at her. Socks began to sniff Wilbur when he passed, but only for a second. Socks laid back on the bottom bunk while Vinnie shut the door to the basement. Vinnie finally came across the garage door, to which Wilbur began to get upset. He was saying things like "My parents are going to kill me, and it won't be done with mercy!" and "My parents don't even let me _look_ at this thing, let alone drive it!" Then, again, Vinnie's brain had a battle with her emotions...

**"See? Look how mad he is! All because you took him here and waited."**

_"No! I didn't mean to-"_

**"Now he's going to blame you for all this!"**

_"But it's not my fault. I was only trying to help him. I didn't want him to get hurt-"_

**"Get hurt? The only one who's going to get hurt is you! Your father will be furious, and you will be grounded until you die!"**

_"You don't get grounded for trying to help someone!"_

**"Help? I think you've helped out quite enough here! First, you go into the forest when you see that thing crash even when you know there's danger out there, also, you take this boy home and his weird gadget."**

_"I'm not listening to you anymore. You're just holding on to the negatives of every choice I make and making me regret everything I do. You're supposed to help me make choices!"_

**"That's what I'm trying to do! You don't know him, you've never met him! He's practically a complete stranger! I get that he would've died but don't you know that some people aren't what they seem?"**

_"I know but...but..."_

Vinnie gave up at that moment. She didn't know how to counter the logic being brought before her by her own brain. She was confused, and then thought that the machine crashing was her fault. Vinnie's head hurt from thinking and battling against logic and feelings. She knew that yes, this boy was a complete stranger, and yes, she didn't know a thing about him, but Vinnie had a big heart. Everyone who knew Vinnie knew that. She often listened to her heart more than her head. At the moment though, Vinnie didn't know if bringing him to her house was the right thing to have done. She hated it when people were mad or angry, especially at her. She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. She didn't like the way Wilbur was beating himself up and wanted to help him however she could, but she didn't know how at the moment. Vinnie slid her back down the wall and sat there, with her hands over her face, trying to comprehend the incident before her.

Wilbur was extremely stressed out, and he was expressing it rather openly. He forgot that there was also a girl here with him, and he just remembered when he was about to let a bomb slip. He looked over to where the doorway was, expecting to see the girl standing there, but saw she had vanished. He walked over to the doorway to see that the girl had not vanished, she just sat down. But he clearly saw that something was wrong. She had her hands over her face and she looked like she was upset. There was an awkward silence before Wilbur took it upon himself to ask her if she was okay. "I'm fine, I was just..." Another awkward silence. "...thinking too much." Vinnie finished. emThinking too much? How do you think too much?/em Wilbur asked himself. He thought that this girl was a bit odd, and she probably was. Vinnie stood back up and shook her head. "Well...I understand if you are a little mad..." Vinnie said, shuffling her foot a little. Wilbur agreed, he was mad...at himself of course. He didn't know at the moment why he'd gotten in the time machine. Wilbur searched for the motive in his brain, he tried to pick it up. He knew it was somewhere in the recesses of his mind, somewhere back there in his head oh how he searched and rummaged through the racing thoughts and cluttered memories and all the emotions he felt. It was in there, somewhere, and he had to find it. "Is there anything I can do to help you?" Vinnie asked Wilbur, snapping him out of his consistent search for the motive. "You can stay here if you want..." She offered. "Do I really have a choice to stay here?" Wilbur asked in his mind. "It wouldn't be too much trouble..." Vinnie added. "Are you sure?" Wilbur asked nervously. "Yes. I'm sure it won't be a problem." Vinnie replied in a shy tone. "Well..." Wilbur thought nervously aloud. Sure, this girl was kind enough to let him stay with her and help him, but what would his parents say? Surely they'd be cross with him. And he knew this time that when he did get grounded, it'd be worse this time. The last time he nearly wiped himself from existence, now what would happen? "Alright, but I'm staying until the machine gets fixed. Then I have to go." He said, taking Vinnie's offer.


	3. Chapter 3: Notebooks and A Cut

Wilbur woke up to Vinnie doing something with her book-bag. He saw notebooks all around her and one near him. Turning so that he was sitting in the bed, he picked the notebook up to read the cover:

_Vinnie Gray_

_Mod 4_

_ADV Mathematics_

_Mr. Tennant _

Wilbur believed that these notebooks were for school, and he got up to see what Vinnie was doing. "Morning." She said, pulling two more notebooks. "Morning." Wilbur responded. Seeing the rest of Vinnie's notebooks, Wilbur realized that Vinnie took a lot of arts-realted subjects. There was a thick, light-blue paperback libretto with the title covered by two other notebooks. Picking up the libretto, Wilbur was met with the title of the musical: FROZEN. He flipped to the back of the book to see what looked like Vinnie in an Elsa costume. She was posed in one photo with her arms up in the air on the balcony of an ice castle like she was singing. Another photo showed her with another girl who wore an Anna costume. There was also a photo of Vinnie as Elsa and some kid dressed as Olaf. There were so many photos, and Wilbur found one of Vinnie in her regular clothes with an award in her hands. She appeared to be in a school gym and there were dozens of people standing and applauding in the background. "Sorry about the clutter," Vinnie snapped him out of his thoughts. "I'm cleaning out my bag since school's over for the summer." She pulled the last two folders out of her bag and threw it over to the boxes near the closet. Wilbur saw Vinnie pull a piece of paper out of one of the folders, but she quickly shoved it back in and ran over to one of the boxes. Frantically, but in an organizational matter, she put the folder in the box and closed the flaps. "Just umm, important stuffs." Vinnie dismissed the frantic action, but she suddenly stopped and said "Stuff. I meant to say stuff. Stuff. What is wrong with me today?' She began to climb to her bunk and looked at the sheets, pulling and smoothing the sheets down a lot. Vinnie's room happened to be very neat and everything had its own organized place. Maybe that's why Vinnie was fussing over the sheets. Wilbur wondered if she had OCD, as all the signs were present. She then went down to go make Wilbur's bunk, finishing it rather quickly. Socks came trotting over to Vinnie and pawed her leg. "Right! Breakfast...alright." Vinnie remembered what she said. Wilbur could smell something cooking from upstairs. "Stay here for a sec, I'll be right back! Just a sec!" Vinnie bolted upstairs. It only took about five minutes before Vinnie was back down into the basement with a plate of food. She handed it to Wilbur, who looked at the contents of the plate. Five strips of bacon and a waffle with syrup on it. He looked up at Vinnie who was over near the stairs by Socks' bed, which was blue and a little fuzzy. She was filling the Husky's bowl with kibble and putting his collar back on. While he ate, Vinnie ran to the bookshelf and put away the notebooks that were strewn across the floor. She was being awfully quiet, and seemed to be focused on organizing these notebooks into the bottom shelf on the bookshelf. Vinnie finally managed to finish with the last notebook, put her binder beside the notebooks and..."Ouch!" Vinnie immidiantly put her finger in her mouth. Wilbur, putting his empty plate aside, went to see if she was okay. "Are you okay?" Wilbur asked, kneeling down to see Vinnie better. "Yeah-yeah I'm fine nothing wrong." Vinnie said quickly, hiding her finger. "Let me see..." Wilbur gently took Vinnie's hand, to which Vinnie flinched and froze. She tensed up a bit and looked away, but Wilbur didn't notice this. "_Wow, his hands are really soft..._" Vinnie thought. He saw a small scratch and there was blood trickling down an edge. Socks was there in a flash, at Vinnie's side. Socks looked at Wilbur and realized the attempt was helping. He also noticed that Socks had a tin in his mouth. A closer look revealed that the tin had band-aids. "Thanks." Wilbur said, taking the tin from the dog's mouth. "You trained your dog to do this?" He asked, taking out a band-aid. "No, my dad did. He's been doing it since he was a puppy." Vinnie commented. "He also attacks on command, he's very protective." She patted Socks on the head with her left hand. After he finished putting the band-aid on, he said "That should do it."

Vinnie could feel her cheeks getting warmer by the second. "_Oh god..._" Vinnie thought. "_Don't blush, don't do it..._" "Vinnie?" She was snapped out of convincing herself to stop blushing by Wilbur, who had looked at her the whole time. She looked into his eyes once, and then he smiled. Vinnie lost it at that point. She got up and grabbed the empty plate on the bottom bunk. "I'll go take care of this plate. Since my dad's probably left, you can be up here in the real house. Trust me, nobody's home but me and Socks." Vinnie said, going up the small staircase. Out of curiosity, Wilbur decided to follow her up into the house.


	4. Chapter 4: Idiots With A Pick-Up

p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="ad4f911b1bd3b2629ff9787dd0764c82"span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"((A/N: Sup guys. Third week of 8th grade and /spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"soooo /em/spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"much homework and class changes. Plus I've caught a cold from my siblings. Ehh, not too bad if you ask me. I actually dont mind being sick except for the sore throat and the stuffy nose. But on a more positive note... 180+ READS? Holy biscuts! Thanks you guys! I love ya' all. You're so awesome! Here's your update since your all so patient and eager.))/span/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="a845b449a49911c4877102125f9b0538"Wilbur opened the door to the basement, following Vinnie as she lead him out. Socks following close behind him, Wilbur's foot made contact with a tile floor, and he looked up to see a kitchen. This kitchen was fairly large, and had a warm color scheme of browns and tans. The tile was also a deep brown, and clean. He stepped out of the staircase, shutting the door to the basement after Socks had exited. He saw Vinnie putting the plate in the sink and washing her hands. There were pictures on the wall to the hallway, and upon further investigation, Wilbur saw a man with blonde hair and honey-colored eyes in an army uniform. There were various pictures of this man, many with Vinnie. He saw a picture of Vinnie with her father, standing at the Veitnam Memorial Wall, pointing to a name carved into the wall. /p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="68dc41712297542a8aad4127afb04a66""That's my dad. He was in Iraq for a while and I had to stay with my grandparents while he was gone." Vinnie said, behind Wilbur. Wilbur didn't see any photos of a woman who would look like she was related to Vinnie. There seemed to be a family portrait of Vinnie and her father, but that was it. He looked at the photo and asked out of curiosity "Where's your mom?" Silence followed his question. Wilbur began to regret asking the question as maybe Vinnie had lost her mother or simply didn't have one. "Hold on..." Vinnie ran to the basement door and went down the stairs. Wilbur heard something rustling around in a box of papers before he heard feet coming up the stairs again. Vinnie had three papers in her hand, all of them were small and had a woman on them. Vinnie gave him the three photos she had in her hand, a look of slight depression on her face. Wilbur took the photos and looked over them closely. There was a photo of a woman, with dark brown hair and dark eyes. They were all photos of her mother in the hospital bed holding what seemed to be baby Vinnie. Wilbur took the consideration not to ask where her mother was now, but he was quite curious as to why she wasn't in the picture anymore. Vinnie smiled though, like nothing had ever happened./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="d2aeb2c8274db144e73cbcb2b9f3ae94" "Would you like something to drink?" She asked in a positive manner. "No thanks, I'm good for now." Wilbur responded, giving Vinnie back the three pieces of paper. She went back down into the basement, but then there was a sound. Like a fire cracker being lit, like a gun shooting something. Vinnie raced back up the stairs. Who could've made that noise? "Those idiots! They think my dad's home, trying to make him freak out." Vinnie pulled out her phone and pressed a button. She set the outside camera facing the window and asked Wilbur to hold it. Vinnie then opened the back door and walked out into the fenced off backyard, where three boys who looked just over 16 were setting up another firework to blast. Vinnie wasn't shouting, but she was trying to reason with them. Wilbur watched through the sliding glass doors as the boys lit off another one, this time it was enough to make him cringe at the sheer volume. Vinnie jumped, but she kept going with a box in her hand. She reached the fence and started talking, but Wilbur couldn't hear exactly what she was saying. The boys reached for another firework, but Vinnie opened the box and threw something at the boys' dirty red pickup. Wilbur could hear popping noises as she threw them at the boys and their truck. He then realized what that box was full of: Snappers. The boys stood out long enough to get in their truck and speed off down to the dirt road in front of the house, and Vinnie came back in, setting the Snappers on the counter. /p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="4b0f7caee0dcc42fd28d40613fb77f12""I don't know how those boys got their licences, but I took care of it. They won't be coming back for a while." She said. Wilbur stopped recording and placed the camera on the counter also, still in amazement that Vinnie went outside and stood there while they shot fireworks at her. Vinnie took her phone and dialed someone's number. She then started talking./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="9666aab41fe414bd7eca3dacbac4077a" "Yeah, Dad, It's me. Those idiots with the pickup were shooting firecrackers in our yard again. Yes I threw the Snappers at them. Yeah, they're gone now. Don't worry I have video proof. Okay, see you at three, love you too. Bye." She hung up. "Sorry about them. They're here very often." Vinnie slipped the box of Snappers into the first drawer by the refrigerator. Socks rubbed his back against Vinnie's legs which made her fall backwards. She waited for a thud, but it never came. She opened her eyes and saw Wilbur had caught her, and he was smiling. /p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="142d70f1d4f0df9d5901b80e2799b334"That smile, made her feel a sort of feeling. It made her heart beat a little faster than it usually would. It made her stomach feel like there were butterflies in it. That smile made her nose twitch, something she'd never done before. It gave her a funny warm feeling, as if she were sleeping near a fire. This feeling was completely foreign to Vinnie, however, and she didn't understand it. Wilbur helped Vinnie up and she came back to reality, realizing she had zoned out for about five seconds. What do normal people do when they don't understand something? They're usually afraid of it aren't they? Vinnie is one of those people whom when they don't understand something, they aren't afraid, they're curious. And that was Vinnie's case. /p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="68a557b41cb07931627fe8c2b892a877"After showing Wilbur the rest of the house, they went back down to the basement. While Wilbur pondered how he would get the Time Machine fixed, Vinnie said to herself "What do we do when we don't understand something?" She flipped through her old science notebooks until she found an entry entitled "Hormones" with lots of notes in the Cornell-Style about them written in black ink. Vinnie answered her own question. "Once we know the way it works and behaves, we'll understand it." She said, gazing through the notes. "Like my grandfather always told me. 'Curiosity is the key to understanding.'" Vinnie began studying her notes attentively while Wilbur made his fifth face-palm of the day, knowing all too well that if he tried to fix it, god knows it'd be the biggest fail he'd ever made./p 


End file.
